The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
Today, a wide variety of computing devices, including many portable devices, support software applications that display digital maps (“mapping applications”). For example, mapping applications may run on laptop and tablet computers, mobile phones, car navigation systems, hand-held global positioning system (GPS) units, etc.
In general, a mapping application can display various types of geographic data including topographical data, street data, urban transit information, and traffic data on a map. Further, the geographic data may be schematic or based on photography, such as satellite imagery. In addition to displaying the geographic data, the mapping application may display the current location of a user operating the computing device and/or a compass direction that the user is facing on the map. However, in many cases, the user's location and facing direction are rendered as one visual indicator (e.g., a chevron icon), which creates imbalance and causes confusion in the visualization. In other cases, the user's facing direction is not visualized or visualized only in a compass mode.